For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Hosea 4:1-3

1 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,
    because the Lord has a charge to bring
    against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
    no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing, lying and murder,
    stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
    and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Because of this the land dries up,
    and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
    and the fish in the sea are swept away.

A. Find Out:

1. Why were they to listen? v.1a
2. What charge did God bring against them? v.1b
3. What specific things were happening? v.2
4. What effect did that have on the land? v.3a
5. What effect did that have on the people of the land? v.3b
6. What effect did that have on wild creatures of the land? v.3c

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise the people’s attitude towards God?
2. How was that reflected by their behaviour?
3. How did that have practical outworking in the land?

C. Comment:

The order is quite clear: godlessness, unrighteousness, destruction. Let’s take them in that order.

First, there was godlessness: no acknowledgement of God in the land. The people had turned away from God and there was no love for God in the people, they had become unfaithful, and everything else then follows that. If there is sin in a nation it is first that the people have turned away from God. All else follows.

Second, there was unrighteousness, wrong behaviour. When relationship with God is abandoned then there is no form of restraint and the behaviour of the people deteriorates. Here it was first in words and then in total disregard for others: murder, stealing, adultery, are all abuses of other people and that always happens after God has been rejected.

Finally there was destruction and this is always inevitable. Already there was breakdown in society by the unrighteous things we’ve noted so far bringing destruction to individuals and to families, but it also brings a breakdown in morale and a weariness and health breakdown follows. More than that, all living creatures in such a land are under a curse and destruction follows.

D. Application:

1. The order is set in concrete: ungodliness, unrighteousness, death.
2. Pray for our own country as you see these things.

Passage: Hosea 4:4-9

4 “But let no one bring a charge,
    let no one accuse another,
for your people are like those
    who bring charges against a priest.
5 You stumble day and night,
    and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother—
6     my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

“Because you have rejected knowledge,
    I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
    I also will ignore your children.
7 The more priests there were,
    the more they sinned against me;
    they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.
8 They feed on the sins of my people
    and relish their wickedness.
9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.
    I will punish both of them for their ways
    and repay them for their deeds.

A. Find Out:    

1. What are the people not to do and why? v.4
2. What were they doing and who was doing it with them? v.5
3. What was happening? v.6a
4. What had they done so what had God done? v.6b,c
5. What had the priests done? v.7,8
6. So what will be said and what will God do? v.9

B. Think:

1. Why had the people no grounds to complain about the priests?
2. What was the sin revealed here?
3. What was going to be the consequence?

C. Comment:

A great temptation is always to blame others for our own sins. God warns the people against this, and specifically against blaming the priests. Why, because the priests had not sinned? No, far from it, but the people were as bad as the priests, and the prophets! They were all as bad as each other. What was their sin? It is spelled out.

It was very clear: they had rejected the knowledge of the law of God that had been given to them through Moses. The Law was the heart of God for His people and now they had rejected that and in so doing they had rejected God Himself. As a consequence, as we saw in the previous verses, unrighteousness followed ungodliness, as sure as night follows day.

What will follow is equally clear: God rejects the priests (v.6b), He will ignore their descendants (v.6c), and He will punish all of them (v.9) for all they have done.

There is a sense here that these verses simply expand on what was said in the first 3 verses of this chapter. When God speaks through His prophets He leaves no room for anyone to say it wasn’t clear and they couldn’t understand. This condemnation is spelled out again and again. Your sins of godlessness and unrighteousness will be punished!

D. Application:

1. The first sin is always ungodliness.
2. It is always followed by unrighteousness.

Passage: Hosea 4:10-19

10 “They will eat but not have enough;
    they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,
because they have deserted the Lord
    to give themselves 11 to prostitution;
old wine and new wine
    take away their understanding.
12 My people consult a wooden idol,
    and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
    they are unfaithful to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
    and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar and terebinth,
    where the shade is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution
    and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

14 “I will not punish your daughters
    when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
    when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots
    and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—
    a people without understanding will come to ruin!

15 “Though you, Israel, commit adultery,
    do not let Judah become guilty.

“Do not go to Gilgal;
    do not go up to Beth Aven.
    And do not swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’
16 The Israelites are stubborn,
    like a stubborn heifer.
How then can the Lord pasture them
    like lambs in a meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
    leave him alone!
18 Even when their drinks are gone,
    they continue their prostitution;
    their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
19 A whirlwind will sweep them away,
    and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

A. Find Out:

1. How is Israel’s action generally described? v.10,11
2. What is then specifically mentioned? v.12
3. And what specifically did they do? v.13
4. What had the men done? v.14
5. What appeal did the Lord then make? v.15
6. What will be the outcome? v.19

B. Think:

1. How does this passage continue on from the previous verses?
2. Why do you think the Lord uses the picture of prostitution?
3. How were Israel and Judah differentiated?

C. Comment:

In verse 7 it said they exchanged God’s glory for “something disgraceful”. Now that something is described. Israel had not merely turned from God and then proceeded to be unpleasant to each other, they had turned from God to idols!

Hosea uses the powerful picture of prostitution to describe this. The picture is of Israel having been married to the Lord, now having gone to get pleasure from some other “spiritual” source, having consorted with idols and false worship. They sacrificed to these idols and even had sex with cult prostitutes; they were whole hearted in their abandoning the truth and going after the dominion of darkness.

In all this the men are picked out for particular condemnation. They are responsible for their families and yet they go with real prostitutes, so it is no wonder their women go after spiritual prostitution.

Note that Judah in the south has not yet gone the same way as Israel in the north. Israel are held up as an example for Judah not to follow. Almost from its inception Israel, as a separate people in the north, followed the way of idolatry (see 1 Kings 12:26 -30) and that false spirit continued on getting worse and worse.

D. Application:

1. Anything that replaces the Lord is an idol.
2. Idolatry is utterly condemned by the Lord.